Recap: General Election 2017: North East Somerset election hustings live coverage

General Election 2017: North East Somerset election hustings live coverage

Share

The debate will bring together the candidates for the seat in a Question Time-style event, which is being presented by the Somerset Guardian and Somer Valley FM in partnership.

All the candidates from the main parties will be taking part, and they are Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative), Manda Rigby (Liberal Democrats), Robin Moss (Labour) and Sally Calverley (Green Party).

Somerset Guardian editor Tim Lethaby will kick off proceedings by interviewing all the candidates, and this will be followed by the main hustings event, chaired by Dom Chambers, of Somer Valley FM. The official hashtag for the event is #NESomsDebate17 and throughout the evening Mr Lethaby will be posing questions from Twitter to the panel.

Speaking before the event Tim said: “The looks set to be an exciting election, and I am delighted that we have teamed up with Somer Valley FM to offer a hustings in Midsomer Norton.

“I hope lots of people come along to quiz the candidates, and for those on Twitter please put forward your questions using the #NESomsDebate17 hashtag.”

20:32

That's a wrap

That’s a wrap this evening what did you think? Let us know!

20:29

Cuts to schools

Audience member: I want to know about now - we’ve already had to make huge cuts at the primary school I work for. I teach a class of 35 children and I do the best I can - what are you going to do about it now instead of talking about the future?

Labour: Politicians should stop spouting about how to teach - give money to teachers, when you make changes make sure the money goes with that, when houses are built make sure the money goes to education in the area. Investment in our schools is investment in the future.

Green: People with jobs put money back into the local economy, it’s not ok to make cuts to teaching and private schools should charge VAT.

Independent: We have a postcode lottery already, lets put all the money into our existing schools before we start spending money on grammar schools and free schools.

On the subject of university fees:

Conservative: It’s a very important question, more people can go as they are paying for their own education. People don’t start paying back until they earn £21K a year. It provides a system which is affordable and means people can go. What is coming out of the Labour party is wishful thinking.

Labour: Germany doesn’t charge their students. Income tax recoups money for fees - the better the job the higher the tax. It’s investment in education that will move the economy forward.

Green: We would scrap fees and reinstate the maintenance grants. Applications have dropped this year because of the fees. fees are holding our young people back.

Independent: No reason we should charge our young to go to uni or whatever choice they take. We lost 10,000 trainee nurses last year due to the lack of bursaries.

Lib Dems: I’ll start with an apology - we have all at some points put fees up but I feel we went back on our manifesto. If I had come out of uni with £50K of debt I wouldn’t have gone. Crippling debt is not how people should start their career.

20:10

What the viewers think

Here are some of the many Tweets using the #NESomsdebate17

20:06

Bobbies on the beat

Labour:

The idea of bobbies on the beat is to deter crime - we need more police in order to do this.

Conservative:

What police officers complain about is all the form filling - this needs to be simplified so that more time is free for police to be out. The presence of a police officer makes us feel safe and if they are free to go out they can do this.

Green:

Let’s give the police some cash, some people behind the scenes to fill out those forms and get the police back on the beat.

Independent:

20,000 officers in 7 years is an awful lot of police to lose. We used to have officers on the beat in the town, they were fantastic at reassuring and providing intelligence. We need a minimum of 20,000 new officers.

Lib Dems:

I believe the cuts should be reversed - we’ve costed a way of finding extra money to pay for more police.

19:55

Candidates talk about terrorism

Independent: Tougher laws for terrorists - what happened was atrocious.

Green: I find it outstanding that the bomber could have been stopped but the laws we have were not used. Once a crime has happened it’s too late - police need support and funding.

Labour: Manchester and Westminster were 2 different events. We need to be very careful about taking sides within the Islamic civil war - how we intervene in the middle east. Foreign policy is a huge issue and in the UK how we use intelligence.

Lib Dem: We as a country have not got our hands clean 100 percent. We cannot withdraw our aid as it will breed anger a discontentment.

We are cutting into the bone and beyond of policing - we do not have levels we used to have.

We access the EU security base in terms of sharing across - we need to share intelligence cross borders.

Conservative: The people that commit these crimes are motivated and we need to stop this. We need to challenge this motivation and ideology, we need to find out who is funding it and who is spreading it. We need to control borders and this will be improved once we are out of the EU, we need to continue to share intelligence with the 5 Eyes. But whatever you do the reality is that whatever the government does the evil person only has to be lucky once.

19:41

Public questions are beginning

Child poverty:

Green: We are the 5th largest economy in the world so child poverty is not ok. by the end of 2020 there will have been a shift of money from the poorest in society to the richest.

What would we do? We have a costed spreadsheet to stop the upward flow of cash and wish to put it back into the pockets of the people.

Lib Dems:

Is it right that pensioners are living in poverty - absolutely not, no one should have to choose the choice between heat or eat.When someone is of the age that they will need more care it’s an outrage that people are provided with care but families are then forced to sell their homes when they die.

Carers also need to be paid more.

Conservative:

This is relative poverty not absolute poverty. In terms of young people it’s important to ensure their parents are in work, work has always been the best route out of poverty. In terms of pensioners the triple lock means they are better off and the pensioner benefits have been guaranteed, fuel payments will go to the poorest not the richest.

Independent:

Defining poverty is quite a difficult task, it comes down to the opportunities you have in live. Schools have big part to play in this, we should invest money in the existing schools instead of free and grammar schools.

We need to review the minimum wage - £7.50 is not enough.

Labour:

Now have more than 2,000 food banks in the UK. We would get rid of zero hour contracts, we would bring in a £10 minimum wage.

With older people we do have people who are asset rich but income poor but there’s a debate as to how to make sure people can live longer and healthier in their own homes - we need a cross party consensus on this to get the best option possible.

19:26

Manda Rigby (Lib Dem)

“When this election was called it was called around Brexit - I believe the public should have the choice to know whether the deal we are getting is better or not. The NHS, we’re honest, there is no magic money tree we will need to raise taxes by 1p in the £1.”

19:22

Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative)

“We have to get the best deal for Brexit - no deal is better than a bad deal.

We need a decent deal on Brexit, strong growing economy and then investment in public services.”

19:18

Robin Moss (Labour)

“We need to invest in public services as they are creaking at the seams.

“We are seeing support for Labour where we wouldn’t expect it and have been hearing more and more people who are deciding to support Labour.”

19:16

Shaun Hughes (Independent)

Shaun plans to focus on local services such as cuts to things like policing and the building of more and more homes.

19:14

Sally Calverley (Green Party)

“We would role back the privatisation of the NHS.

“If you look at the beautiful countryside it’s awful to think that could change.

“The Green Party is the party that has literally put bodies in front of bulldozers to stop fracking.”

19:08

Standing room only in the town hall tonight!

There’s a great turnout tonight as this tweeter has pointed out.

19:04

We're off!

The debate has started with Dom Chambers chairing the table - all the candidates are here!

North East Somerset hustings

Good evening - we’ll be with you as we cover the hustings in Midsomer Norton tonight - we’re streaming it on Facebook Live and you can follow our live blog here!If you want to get involved tweet with the #NESomsDebate17

Somerset Guardian editor Tim Lethaby will kick off proceedings by interviewing all the candidates, and this will be followed by the main hustings event, chaired by Dom Chambers, of Somer Valley FM.